Post-Game Talk: Leafs lose to Buffalo

[Gary Nylund]

Thank goodness it is not up to you.
Reilly has been sleeping for a week, goalies have been awful, Engval, Spezza, Simmons haven't been in a game for weeks and you suggest benching a 50 point guy who has a center who cannot find the goal for a month. Hmmmmm

Maybe Keefe should send a message to the entire team. Play the next game with an empty net, tell them that the goal is to allow less than 6 goals and it's a lesson in how to play defence.

 

[maskingagent]

All the top teams have stinker games like these and people read into them way too much. If this happens in the playoffs ? Then its a different story.

 

[ToneDog]

I really believe thy they should put Spezza and Tavares together

Bunting- Matthews-Marner
Mikheyev-Kerfoot-Nylander
Tavares-Spezza-Kase (yes JT on wing)
Engvall-Kampf-Simmonds

If JT really wants to play Center then:

Nylander-Kerfoot-Kase
Mikheyev-Tavares-Spezza

Spezza’s offensive instincts are wasted on the 4th line and JT gets a big bodied player to play with at his pace

Depends how many minutes Spezza can handle. If we give JT some PK time as was proposed earlier, maybe it can work.

 

[ToneDog]

Relax people. This one totally on Keefer. No b*lls to take heat himself. It is only 1 game. In a season means very little. Da guy Keefer has been screwing around past few games and this one he made really stupid calls. I can't even blame Sandin. He is a kid. He was setup to fail. Put kid on top pair. Put kid on wrong side. Play him with another offensive dman. It was a complete f*ckup by Keefer. Any hockey guy with any sense of defense knows it was all on Keefer. I bet Dubie asked him to try it so he could see possibilities. Spreadsheet guys never know. Why it h*ll would you put a kid who is very slow and small it that spot. Of course you are gonna make him look like an AHLer.

Putting this on tender another stupid call by numbers guys. Numbers guys are just that pretty much useless at decision making on all fronts. You listen to them and then do da right thing. And I am a CA now CPA.

Bright side is Keefer realized Dermy has been his best defender past week or so, with Brodie, before he got sick. Down side Holl went back to his usual useless self. Even Brodie could not fix that mess.

Rielly Brodie
Dermy Lub
Sandin Lily

Keefer some advice to you. This is your best configuration you can put together right now.

I'm cancelling my reserved spot on the parade route if we go into the playoffs with that d group. Sorry, that D will be eaten alive.

 

[keonsbitterness]

I couldn't agree more and have said it more than once. The "hand picked buddy coach" of Dubas is wayyy in over his head. Can you image if we had an actual ex cup winning coach? Even Gallant would have been great....

We just had an actual Cup-winning coach.

If not Babcock or Keefe, then who?

I wish Kadri had never left, and also think the blaming of him for playoff losses is ridiculous -- and suspicious. There is a racial prejudice issue under the surface there. His hit last year that led to a suspension would have been judged as fair if it was Tom Wilson, who gets away with murder. Why? Well, Tom is a "good Canadian boy." It is disgusting.

One thing about Kadri no one ever mentions, is his play making ability. He always had an eye for the open man, and the skill to deliver strong assists. He's not Mitch, but he is better at that than Tavares.....

I don't buy it. Getting suspended two playoffs in a row is going to put any player in the spotlight. And it's not like other Leaf players weren't jettisoned.

 

[Mugzy97]

Thank goodness it is not up to you.
Reilly has been sleeping for a week, goalies have been awful, Engval, Spezza, Simmons haven't been in a game for weeks and you suggest benching a 50 point guy who has a center who cannot find the goal for a month. Hmmmmm

Funny you say that, Tavares has more points than Nylander this year in less games. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

[stuart5035]

I will say Buffalo defended well but the Leafs didn’t battle hard enough through it.

agreed, they played very well and clogged up the ice as good as any team recently.

They say beware of the first home game after a road trip, especially a team like Washington at the end-boy did they prove that

 

[Nylanderthal]

I really believe thy they should put Spezza and Tavares together

Bunting- Matthews-Marner
Mikheyev-Kerfoot-Nylander
Tavares-Spezza-Kase (yes JT on wing)
Engvall-Kampf-Simmonds

If JT really wants to play Center then:

Nylander-Kerfoot-Kase
Mikheyev-Tavares-Spezza

Spezza’s offensive instincts are wasted on the 4th line and JT gets a big bodied player to play with at his pace

I’m 100% on board with this and have been suggesting creating 3 scoring lines for a while now. Willy & kerf work well together but not with JT. JT needs a couple of guys to hound pucks and cycle. Mik & Kase fit that role to a T. Kampf-Engvall shutdown 4th line with either Simmonds to lay the body or one of the middle 6 wingers double shifted when in need of some puck control.

 

[francis246]

I’m 100% on board with this and have been suggesting creating 3 scoring lines for a while now. Willy & kerf work well together but not with JT. JT needs a couple of guys to hound pucks and cycle. Mik & Kase fit that role to a T. Kampf-Engvall shutdown 4th line with either Simmonds to lay the body or one of the middle 6 wingers double shifted when in need of some puck control.

if they are going to do this, they need to get an upgrade at forward because I’m sorry but Spezza is pretty much done. He looks old out there

 

[MarkusKetterer]

Just look at whoever was in net for the Soo over the last 10 years and if he is in the NHL or AHL Doobie is working on it.

Looking and you already have one of them still playing anywhere. Ottawa has another, and the Rangers have Halverson, while Justin Nichols is with the University of Waterloo. The rest have retired and they didn’t play much.

With that said, the game last night by the Leafs was like, every game the Sabres play. They somehow played a flawless game, and I expect it to go very differently the next time these two play.

 

[ULF_55]

Looking and you already have one of them still playing anywhere. Ottawa has another, and the Rangers have Halverson, while Justin Nichols is with the University of Waterloo. The rest have retired and they didn’t play much.

With that said, the game last night by the Leafs was like, every game the Sabres play. They somehow played a flawless game, and I expect it to go very differently the next time these two play.

One team was willing to put in the work and got some good bounces for their efforts.

 

[PromisedLand]

Depends how many minutes Spezza can handle. If we give JT some PK time as was proposed earlier, maybe it can work.

JT is not fast enough to PK IMO though.

Also, Spezza does not have to take every shift; someone else can swap for him every now and then.

Spezza's offensive instincts IMO should be used by us

 

[MarkusKetterer]

One team was willing to put in the work and got some good bounces for their efforts.

Yea. Although that’s really been a problem this season for the Sabres. Like, we can take the losses, but it drives us nuts seeing no effort.

I suppose us Sabres and Leaf fans are similar in that regard, obviously with a talent differential. At least you guys can technically win games with a half-assed effort, whereas the Sabres can’t *looks at the 9 losses the Sabres have taken after going into the 3rd period with a 2-3 goal lead*

 

[JT AM da real deal]

I'm cancelling my reserved spot on the parade route if we go into the playoffs with that d group. Sorry, that D will be eaten alive.

I concur .. but that's all he's got right now .. if 2 defensive D men not brought in then we are gone again in round 1

 

[2 Slick]

All the top teams have stinker games like these and people read into them way too much. If this happens in the playoffs ? Then its a different story.

Most of the top teams have goaltenders that can actually stop the puck on a regular basis, whereas Toronto does not.

Campbell has had a save percentage of around .885% and over 3 GAA since December 1st. Mrazek has a season save percentage of .894% and around 3 GAA.

All of the amount of grit and good defence in the world won’t help them in the first round if their goaltenders play like that, I don’t care how good you are.

 

[Niagara Bill]

Funny you say that, Tavares has more points than Nylander this year in less games. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Awww, the first Nylander hater I have seen on this board. Let's see, Simmons is a top 10 scorer, Spezza, Mickey, Kase, Kerfoot.
Have a good day

 

[Menzinger]

I really believe thy they should put Spezza and Tavares together

Bunting- Matthews-Marner
Mikheyev-Kerfoot-Nylander
Tavares-Spezza-Kase (yes JT on wing)
Engvall-Kampf-Simmonds

If JT really wants to play Center then:

Nylander-Kerfoot-Kase
Mikheyev-Tavares-Spezza

Spezza’s offensive instincts are wasted on the 4th line and JT gets a big bodied player to play with at his pace

I don't think Spezza can handle third line minutes at this point.

 

[ktownhockey]

The Tavares signing was a mistake.

Maybe it was BUT why keep harping on it? Not just you, but others in PGTs. It is what it is. Can we not just talk about the game? There are MANY other threads you can talk about JT and how "bad" of a contract it looks like now.

I'm still not worried about our forward group. What I am worried about is our goaltending and finding the right pairings for D if no trades are made and no Muzzin (Mind you he's been pretty poor this year).

It's allllllll about Tavares I guess lol. Hate Dubas, that's fine! Do it in another thread please.

 

[Lauro]

So Lightning lost 1-5 tonight, Canes 0-3 (both against better opponents, but still ...), Avs 1-2 against the Coyotes ... is the sky falling there too?

 

[ShaneFalco]

So Lightning lost 1-5 tonight, Canes 0-3 (both against better opponents, but still ...), Avs 1-2 against the Coyotes ... is the sky falling there too?

Seriously?

 

[griffon1]

I really believe thy they should put Spezza and Tavares together

Bunting- Matthews-Marner
Mikheyev-Kerfoot-Nylander
Tavares-Spezza-Kase (yes JT on wing)
Engvall-Kampf-Simmonds

If JT really wants to play Center then:

Nylander-Kerfoot-Kase
Mikheyev-Tavares-Spezza

Spezza’s offensive instincts are wasted on the 4th line and JT gets a big bodied player to play with at his pace

Sounds awful. We let it too many goals which is as much a problem as not scoring.

First, the goaltending we're stuck with needs to be better, and they may be.

The d was awful. Could be bad pairings but I still think we could use a strong dman. If not, at least don't put Sandin up top and stop Holl from thinking he's Bobby Orr because he scored a goal.

I'd try Robertson with JT and WN for a game, If that doesn't work, we need to get a good tough winger for that line rather than keep shuffling the deck.

 

[Apotheosis]

Maybe it was BUT why keep harping on it? Not just you, but others in PGTs. It is what it is. Can we not just talk about the game? There are MANY other threads you can talk about JT and how "bad" of a contract it looks like now.

I'm still not worried about our forward group. What I am worried about is our goaltending and finding the right pairings for D if no trades are made and no Muzzin (Mind you he's been pretty poor this year).

It's allllllll about Tavares I guess lol. Hate Dubas, that's fine! Do it in another thread please.

I harp on it because it directly impacts the rest of the team. Our goaltending is far more of a concern but Tavares takes up way too much of the cap (we're in the high end for cap dedicated to forwards but bottom of the league in cap spent towards goalie and D).

 

[HamiltonNHL]

The Tavares signing was a mistake.

It accelerated the rebuild and the salary structure.

It was the big mistake.

 

[Throw More Waffles]

So Lightning lost 1-5 tonight, Canes 0-3 (both against better opponents, but still ...), Avs 1-2 against the Coyotes ... is the sky falling there too?

Those teams haven't lost 6 straight playoff elimination games over the past 3 seasons. Duds like that Buffalo game remind us all of those 6 humiliating elimination games. Those other teams think of their playoff series victories over the past 3 years. 8 for Tampa, 4 for Carolina and Avs.